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FRIDAY, May 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) — In Northern California, the incidence of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic period, according to a letter to the editor published online May 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Matthew D. Solomon, M.D., Ph.D., from the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in California, and colleagues examined weekly incidence rates of hospitalizations for acute myocardial infarction (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction [STEMI] or non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction [NSTEMI]) before and after the first reported COVID-19 death in Northern California on March 4, 2020. Incidence rates (events per 100,000 person-weeks) for the COVID-19 period (March 4 to April 14, 2020) were compared to those of the pre-COVID-19 period (Jan. 1 through March 3, 2020).<\/p>\n
The researchers observed a decrease of up to 48 percent in the weekly rates of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction during the COVID-19 period. A total of 1,051 hospitalization events occurred during Jan. 1 to March 3, 2020 (incidence rate, 4.1 per 100,000 person-weeks), while 61 hospitalization events occurred from April 8 through April 14, 2020 (incidence rate, 2.1 per 100,000 person-weeks; incidence rate ratio, 0.52; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.40 to 0.68; P < 0.001). Similar decreases were seen among patients with NSTEMI and STEMI (incidence rate ratios, 0.51 [95 percent CI, 0.38 to 0.68] and 0.60 [95 percent CI, 0.33 to 1.08], respectively).<\/p>\n
“In a large diverse community setting in California, the incidence of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction declined after March 4, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than would be expected on the basis of typical seasonal variation alone,” the authors write. “Similar findings have been noted in northern Italy.”<\/p>\n